The basic input/output system (BIOS) is the lowest level software in a computer system and acts as an interface between the hardware, e.g. the chip set and processor, and the operating system. The BIOS provides access to the system hardware and enables the creation of the higher-level operating systems (e.g., DOS, Windows) that are used to run software applications. The BIOS is also responsible for allowing control of the computer system's hardware settings, for booting up the machine, and various other system functions. For example, the BIOS may contain all the code required to control the keyboard, display screen, disk drives, serial communications, and a number of miscellaneous functions.
Computer systems may have a flash BIOS, which means that the BIOS has been recorded on a flash memory chip. Flash memory is a special type of EEPROM that can be erased and reprogrammed in blocks instead of one byte at a time. The flash BIOS can be updated if necessary. Computer systems may utilize chip sets that support multiple flash BIOSs. For example, the 870 chip set manufactured by Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif., may have up to four flash BIOSs. These chip sets may be scalable and, accordingly, the computer system may be partitioned into two or more nodes. In a partitioned system, the process of updating the flash BIOS is similar to that of a traditional monolithic computer system that utilizes only one flash BIOS. However, in an aggregated system, e.g., a computer system with more than one node, the flash BIOS update process is different from that of the traditional monolithic computer system. For example, for a particular node, the flash BIOS may only be accessed from the processor(s) in that node. Furthermore, the flash BIOSs in the partitioned (two or more node) system need to be updated separately. As a result, the flash BIOSs in the nodes may contain different versions of the BIOS.